Ratchet and Clank Legends: Race the Clock
by Cortana Hansen
Summary: (Sort of rewrite of Ratchet and Clank Legends: Project Oblivion)- Ratchet and Clank return in another adventure to stop evil. With the villains having two of the most powerful weapons of all time at their disposal and the heroes desperately racing against the clock, there's only one question to ask... which way will the tide turn?
1. I: Darkness Will Fall

**After rewriting "A Day At the Imperial Fight Festival," I realised something. There's a lot of stuff I wanna rewrite. And I'm going to kick it off with a rewrite of _Ratchet and Clank: Project Oblivion._ While _Project Oblivion _wasn't a very popular story, it was still pretty fun to write, and the support from Max and my other reviewers definitely helped keep me going. **

**So I'd like to make this a gift-fic also, this time as a gift for Max Chronicle and KayxClankForever. Thank you guys so much for supporting me while I wrote _Ratchet and Clank: Project Oblivion._ I hope you both enjoy the rewrite version just as much! :)**

. . .

Nefarious stirred, shifting his position slightly in the sand. He hated sand with a vengeance. It always got everywhere, was so danged hot, and- wait a minute. Sand? The robot's red eyes snapped open and he sat up, looking at his surroundings. He was on a beach. The sun was beginning to set. The sea water was lapping softly against the shore. And aside from Nefarious and a Cazar couple who were busy making out in the sand, the place was deserted.

The mad scientist stood up, brushing as much sand as he could off himself. _"I'm going to kill Lawrence for this the second I get my hands on him." _As Nefarious made his way to the ship dock, where he assumed Lawrence would be waiting, he bumped into a young woman, who was accompanied by some walking fish-man. Nefarious didn't care and pushed past them. "Stupid squishies..."

As he continued walking down the wooden platform, he heard the click of a gun behind him. Nefarious slowly turned around, raising his arms defensively, and saw the young woman aiming a Combuster at him. He noted that she had horns on her head that seemed to somewhat resemble a Fongoid's... but Nefarious didn't recognise her species. It was the same for the fish-man. Both were clad in uniforms.

"Halt, in the name of the Galactic Rangers!" the woman shouted. "I'm Elaris, and my friend here is Brax. You're coming with us, Nefarious."

"Seriously?!" Nefarious glared at them incredulously. "I just got off a backwater planet that I had to save with the help of three lunatics, and I can't even go two feet without somebody pointing a stupid gun at me!"

"You tried to destroy an entire solar system," Brax told the robot. He equipped a Heavy Lancer and aimed it at the doctor. "Now come quietly, or we will have to take you in by force."

"You gotta be kidding me," Nefarious retorted. "Sure, I tried to turn the entire galaxy into robots one time. And tried to alter history a few years back. And tried to kill Captain Qwark on numerous occasions. But that's all in the past! I'm sort of a good guy now! Call up those morons Ratchet and Clank! They should have gotten off Magnus by now! They'll tell you how I helped save that miserable mud ball and all those nature freaks living on it!"

Elaris and Brax looked at each other, pretty much thinking the same thing. Nefarious has lost his mind.

"You think I'm crazy, don't you?" Nefarious asked, as though he could read their thoughts.

"Yes," Elaris answered. "Now come with us peacefully and you won't be harmed."

"Does it look like I have a choice?! You're pointing a gun at me!" Nefarious suddenly stumbled forward a bit, having been shot from behind. Electricity sparked all across his mechanical body, and the robot collapsed on the platform, deactivated.

Elaris looked to see Ratchet standing not far away, holding a Spitting Hydra in his hand. Clank was at his side, holding an overripe banana for whatever reason.

Naturally Elaris wasn't too happy. "Really, Ratchet? He said he'd come peacefully."

"Never trust an evil mad scientist that somehow survived being blown to pieces _and_ turned himself into a robot_,"_ Ratchet replied as the Spitting Hydra vanished from his hand.

Elaris shrugged. "He was acting really strange. Maybe an interrogation will clear things up, assuming he cooperates."

"Which is probably not gonna happen, considering the things he's done," Brax told her gruffly, picking up the unconscious robot and hoisting him over his shoulder. "C'mon, let's go. I don't want to be late for meatloaf night, otherwise Qwark is going to be whining about it all day tomorrow."

Elaris let out a sigh and let the Combuster disappear from her hands. "Now? But we were supposed to- oh fine! We'll go! But you're paying the fee for that spa we're going to miss."

"You don't even like spas. You just came here because you wanted to see all the mutated fish," Ratchet pointed out as they walked to their ship. He looked down at Clank and saw the little robot was _still_ carrying a banana. "Uh... Clank, _why_ are you carrying a banana?"

"Private Qwark told me he bought a pet monkey," Clank replied. "Monkeys like bananas and Pokitaru is good place to buy them so... I bought him a banana."

"It looks too ripe," Ratchet told him. "You're sure the monkey will eat that?"

"Beggars cannot be choosers." Clank smiled at his little joke. "No, monkeys can't be choosers. Hehehe!"

Ratchet shook his head, barely suppressing the smile that wanted to appear on his face. "Uh, right."

. . .

Nefarious stirred, aware that he was lying on his back on a metal floor. He vaguely thought that the incident earlier was a dream and started calling for Lawrence. "Lawrence! I fell out of bed again!" Obviously no reply. "LAAAAWRENCE! Get in here before I come out and shoot you myself!"

Still no reply. The angry robot opened his eyes and sat up. The room was dark and had little light. He hadn't the faintest idea of where he was, but it wasn't funny, that was for sure. "Uh... hello? Can anybody hear me? Somebody tell me what's going on in the next _five_ seconds, or I'm gonna ANNIHILATE THIS ROOM!"

Meanwhile, Ratchet, Clank, and the rest of the Galactic Rangers watched the scene on a monitor with interest. Ratchet looked at Elaris and asked, "Can he actually destroy the cell?"

"No, I don't think so," Elaris replied. "The walls are lined with Mjolnir-grade steel alloy. He would have to have the power of three RHYNOs combined to even make a _dent__."_

Cora yawned tiredly. "Listen guys, I'm tired. I think I'm gonna hit the hay. Can we do the interrogation tomorrow?"

"Yeah, you guys get some rest," Ratchet told his team. "I'm going to the Holo-Room to stretch my legs a little."

"I am going as well." Clank leapt onto Ratchet's back. "No Ranger should go into any combat situation alone- even if it is merely a practice simulation."

Private Qwark stretched his arms as he said, "Yeah, I'm going to bed after I have my meatloaf sandwich, as funny as it is to see Nefarious running around in a cage like a chicken. I also need to feed my monkey." He was about to walk out, but then turned back to his team and asked, "By the way, what do you think of the name... Shawn?"

"Too common," Cora replied. The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

"Gerald?"

"Sounds like something you'd name an old guy. No offense to old people, of course," Ratchet told him.

"Banana Bonkers?"

"Can we deal with this later, guys?" Elaris asked, irritated.

"Yeah, we can," Ratchet said. "Sorry, Qwark. I have some ideas for names, so I'll talk to you 'bout them later, okay?"

Qwark nodded. "See ya in the morning, my fellow Rangers!"

. . .

_Meanwhile... in the center of the universe- give or take fifty feet..._

Nefarious approached his colleagues in the Orvus Chamber, who were conversing in low voices. The three of them turned to Nefarious, halting their discussion for the moment.

"One universe destroyed," Nefarious said, as a sheet of paper appeared in his hand. He pulled off a sticker, a good star, and stuck it on the shirt of Gleeman Vox. "Four to go. Soon we'll all have our revenge on those who wronged us! On those who took what was rightfully ours!"

"Right, right," Vox replied, trying to pull off the sticker. With no success. Eventually he just gave up and crossed his arms, annoyed.

Emperor Tachyon rubbed his tiny hands together gleefully. "I can't _wait!_ Soon I'll annihilate every Lombax in existence! Hahaha! Ahahahahaha!"

Nefarious winced at the Cragmite's high-pitched laugh. It was as though someone was scraping a hundred chalkboards with a thousand nails. "You mean you'll annihilate your universe to get rid of them," the robotic doctor corrected. "Just in your universe. They'll still exist in others."

"Whatever," Tachyon muttered, crossing his arms and pouting.

Nefarious rolled his eyes and turned to Otto Destruct, who was barely suppressing a scowl. He really didn't like the doctor one bit. Nefarious smiled sinisterly as he looked at the villain. "You get to destroy your universe next."

"Why can't we just do it all at once?!" Tachyon whined. "Why do we have to take turns?! I hate waiting!"

"Because, _Percival,"_ Nefarious spoke menacingly, turning to glare at the little Cragmite, "too many changes at once can destroy the entire multiverse. Then we'll be destroyed as well. Is that what you want?!"

"No," Tachyon replied, not happy at being called "Percival." He couldn't wait until they were finished so he could turn Nefarious into scrap metal to use for a new throne or something.

"Good," Nefarious told him. He then continued, "Within two days, the space-time continuum should have settled. We'll begin the next purging then. Now... GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"


	2. II: Revelations

**Guess what, everyone? Reviews! :)**

_**Max Chronicle: *goes back to re-read the original for comparison purposes***_

_**Some added descriptions here and there and altered sentence structure for flow purposes..., I like it. :)**_

_**And as for this being a gift, thank you. Also, I can tell you this: You keep up the quality of this rewrite as you've done here, and I'll definitely enjoy as much as the original story, if not more. Good luck Cortana!**_  
_**Max out.**_

**Reply: Thanks, Max! :) I'll do my best to keep it up and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this chapter as well.**

_**KayxClankForever: ****I love this, nerd-reading your fics are always nice and I'm flattered that you made it as a sort of gift to me and Max (even if I don't feel like I deserve it). I'll 100% enjoy reading this rewrite and look forward to seeing what you have in store for us! :D**_

**Reply: Thanks! I'm probably going to do a lot of diverging from the original story, starting from this chapter. So you might see some similarities, but also a lot of differences. :)**

. . .

_In the Holo-Room... a Black Water City Simulation_

Ratchet leapt forward off the ledge and activated his Swingshot. The grapple shot out from its little socket, soared through the air for a few seconds, and latched onto a street lamp. The Lombax held onto the cable tightly as he swung to the edge of the sidewalk. He disengaged the grapple at just the right second and let the momentum take care of the rest. Ratchet landed safely on the sidewalk feet first.

"I wish that you would wait until you have actually latched onto the lamp _before_ jumping off the ledge, Ratchet," Clank spoke up. "That would greatly increase our chances of _not_ plunging to our deaths."

"Oh, come on, Clank! Where's your sense of excitement?" Ratchet asked as his Swingshot disappeared. He tele-equipped a Combuster as a robotic practice dummy rounded the corner, brandishing a Warmonger. He shot its head off with one blast, leaving the the dummy to flop over, sparking. "This holo-program is so easy. It's way too predictable. Shoot a few dummies, swing around a bit. Shoot a few dummies, swing around a bit. It could use a bit more variety, ya know?"

"Perhaps." Clank was silent a moment while Ratchet mowed down a few more dummies before switching to his trusty and slightly rusty Omniwrench. "Ratchet, do you not find it odd that Nefarious is sitting in one of our cells right now? He should be dead. The odds of surviving that explosion of the Deplanetiser are one in fourteen million six hundred and five."

"I find it pretty strange, yeah," Ratchet replied, smashing a dummy's face with his wrench. "But it doesn't change the fact that he's here, right now, alive and well. And a robot."

"Unless perhaps he is one of Nefarious' creations?" Clank theorised aloud. "It would make much more sense. After all, it was proven by science that it is impossible to convert biomatter into mechanical matter."

"You never know. A few thousand years ago people used to say Slipspace travel was impossible. And yet, years later, we've got it." Ratchet pressed a big, shiny red button on the wall of a building, ending the Holo-Room simulation. The buildings and other obstacles disappeared, revealing a large, cubical room. Ratchet was standing next to a wall, where the button was located. Clank hopped off Ratchet's back and turned around to face the Lombax.

As Ratchet's Omniwrench disappeared, the Lombax said, "I'm not saying that this robot couldn't be one of Nefarious' creations. I'm saying we should be careful about this. There could be more going on than we know, and if it's bad, then we can't take any chances."

"I agree," Clank replied simply as he and Ratchet left the Holo-Room.

While Ratchet headed off to do something, Clank decided to go speak to Elaris about possibly making the Holo-Room simulations more challenging for his Lombax friend.

As he walked down the corridor, the lights flickered a moment. A small ball of pale blue energy phased through a wall into the hall, levitating above the floor. The ball of energy was actually a small, purple alien encased in a metal suit. The alien's large, blue almond-shaped eyes scanned the room.

"Hello?" Clank addressed uncertainly. The strange alien turned towards him in puzzlement. Clank continued, "If you are looking for Captain Ratchet, I am afraid he is not here at the moment. Perhaps I can help you find him?"

The purple alien slowly blinked curiously. It approached him, and stopped a few feet away, hovering above the floor. "Zoni?"

"Come again?" Clank asked. "What is a 'Zoni?'"

The alien moved closer to Clank until it was about a foot away. "I am Zoni."

"Ah," Clank replied. "What is your purpose here, Mister Zoni?"

"Danger in the Clock," the Zoni told him. "You must stop them before they can use it again. Senior Caretaker not at post-" The poor Zoni suddenly gasped in pain and fell to the floor, clutching its chest. "... you... are the only one..."

With that, the Zoni slumped over, dead. Its body vanished in a flash of light, leaving only its armour behind.

"Oh no," Clank murmured sadly. He reached a mechanical hand forward and nudged the metal suit, a vain hope in his circuit board. Nothing happened. Clank pulled himself together and picked up the armour. "I must speak to the other Rangers about this."

. . .

_Soon, in Elaris' new lab..._

The Galactic Rangers stood around a small desk on which the Zoni's armour sat. Elaris had examined some scans she took of the suit and determined that the small holes in the armour were from a Beta Disruptor.

"While the Disruptor itself probably didn't hurt the Zoni, it did damage its armour," Elaris said. "My guess is that the suit acts as a shield for the Zoni when they enter our dimension. It's likely that their home dimension is different from ours, so they can't survive here without protective gear."

"So that's why the Zoni died?" Ratchet asked.

Elaris nodded.

"It talked about some sort of Clock," Clank informed them.

"A Clock, huh?" Cora thought a moment. "Well, according to Fongoid lore, the Zoni are the guardians of time. They protect something called a 'Keeper of Time', which is supposed to act like the universe's pacemaker after the Great Ripple occurred... maybe that's what the Zoni was referring to?"

"But I thought those were just myths," Elaris said. "And anyway, since when did you know squat about Zoni mythology?"

"It was a required course in high school," Cora muttered, looking annoyed.

"Look, either way," Ratchet spoke up, "it can't be coincidence that first Nefarious shows up, then this Zoni. Maybe he knows something about what's going on. I say one of us should interrogate him and see what he knows."

"I volunteer," Elaris said, raising her hand. "If we're going to get any information out of him, he may find it easier to connect with a similarly-minded person- in terms of intelligence, anyway."

"Great idea!" Brax exclaimed. "And afterwards, can I use him for target practice? The Holo-Room is so boring now, it's ridiculous."

"Uh, no, Brax," Ratchet said, looking at Brax. "We'll worry about the Holo-Room another time." Then he turned to Elaris. "Elaris, I like your thinking. When do you think you can start the interrogation?"

"Now, I suppose," Elaris replied. "I don't have anything else I really need to do right now."

. . .

Elaris opened the door to Nefarious' cell and walked in cautiously. She held a data pad in her hands. "Dr. Nefarious?" She saw the robot sitting in a corner, moping. "I'd like to speak with you."

"Go away," Nefarious snapped, irritated. "I'm _not_ gonna take any bribes."

"Look, if you cooperate with us," Elaris spoke calmly, "then we might be able to reduce your sentence. I just want to ask you some questions. That's all."

"Such as...?"

"Earlier today, there was an incident. One of my colleagues was approached by a creature that called itself a 'Zoni.' We did some research and were hoping you can fill in some gaps. Do you know anything about the Great Clock?"

Nefarious' eye twitched. He crossed his arms and leaned against a wall. "And _if_ I do?"

"Like I said, maybe your cooperation with us will reduce your sentence," Elaris told him.

Nefarious pretended to think. He didn't believe for a _second_ that his cooperation would help him in any way. "Hm... _no_. I don't know anything. Now unless the universe is in danger of complete and utter annihilation, leave me alone, lady."

"My name is _Elaris!"_ Elaris snapped angrily. She took a deep breath, and calmed herself down a bit. "And we don't know much at the moment, but from what we could gather from Clank's story-"

"Clank!" Nefarious' eyes flashed with anger. "Did he tell you how I helped him and his dimwitted squishy friends save Magnus?!"

"No, he didn't," Elaris replied, barely containing the urge to roll her eyes.

"You think I'm crazy, don't you?" Nefarious interrupted. "That's the problem with you squishies- you_ don't_ know anything. You always think that some theory is true when there's the possibility it may not be. Next thing you know, you're gonna be claiming that the Aleerans are descended from_ monkeys,_ or something just as idiotic!"

Nefarious stopped himself before he said any more.

Elaris lost it. "I _do _know things. I know that a super-condensed supernova that's bombarded by teraxium particles at fourteen million six hundred and five giga-hertz a second can create a laser that has enough power to destroy a planet. I know that the Pixelizer uses pure cationic energy to break down organic and inorganic molecules and rearrange them before reinitialization.

"And there's another thing I know! You can while away the last of your days in this cell for all I care!" Elaris whirled around and left the cell, slamming the door shut behind her.

Nefarious stood there, very confused. "What just happened?"

. . .

**And that, my friends, is the end of that. :) And there's a reason why I made it so Elaris' interrogation with Nefarious go badly, but I'm not gonna tell you why, obviously.**

**Sorry this took so long, but I wanted to extra polish this chapter before publishing.**


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